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NO MORE BULL! HEALTHCARE FOR ALL! This is the theme for the ACT UP 20th Anniversary action being planned in NYC Thursday, March 29, assembling at 11:30 AM and kicking off at noon from the front of the Federal Building at Broadway & Worth Sts.

This is a legal permit march which means that if you participate you are not under threat of arrest unless you choose to do civil disobedience, which some are planning to do. The MARCH ON WALL STREET is to denounce healthcare profiteers and to launch ACT UP's new campaign demanding a REAL universal national healthcare system.

The march route will stop in front of Trinity Church where the first ACT UP demo took place in 1987, to leave tombstones with the names of friends and loved ones who have died in the epidemic. The march will go down to Wall Street and then to the statue of the bull (the bull market) in Bowling Green where appropriate attention will be given to demand NO MORE BULL.

All meetings are at the LGBT Center, 208 W. 13th St. (between 7th & Greenwich Aves)

I'll be leaving shortly for the 20th Anniversary demo. Jody and Alex have let me know they're going to be there and I am looking forward to seeing them there. It's great to feel our AM gang are going to be represented.

I've been asked to speak in front of Trinity Church, which is one of the stops the march will make. So I thought I would share my remakrs with you all:

More than 25 millions dead worldwide. Nearly 40 millions more infected. 500,000 Americans dead of HIV and more than a million more are infected. 150,000 infected here in NYC where over 50,000 have died.

My name is Andrew Velez. Twenty years ago I stood at this same place for the first ACT UP demonstration, protesting the unconscionably high price of the only drug then available to treat people living with AIDS. Now we’re here again, 20 years later and still fighting the same battles. High priced drugs from greedy pharmaceutical companies. Insurance companies that take as much money as possible without providing real coverage. And a government that still gives little more than lip service to dealing with this epidemic.

How could we possibly have imagined 20 years ago, that we’d have to be here again today and still with no end in sight to this plague.

Our loved ones are dead because of the failure of our government to act quickly, responsibly and compassionately. They are dead because insurance companies and pharmaceuticals have always put profits above people. This cannot be permitted to go on. ACT UP demands a single payer national health care program that provides full healthcare for everyone. And we want it NOW.

Today we are also here to remember and to honor those whom we have lost. These aren’t just numbers, but REAL people whom we loved and will never forget. To that end I ask those who are holding tombstones to call out the name you are honoring today, and then any others here who wish can call out a name, after which we will have a moment of silence.

(Names called out ending with Aldyn McKean) Aldyn Mckean, HIV warrior, killed by deadly drugs in a murderous health system.

No more bull! We demand single payer national healthcare now. We don’t want to have to come back here again, so as we remember the dead we fight like hell for the living ! To any who hear our voices today, just as we said long ago, we’re here fighting for your lives too.

Wow, with my naked eye I saw TONS of protestors. I can't wait to see what the turn-out will look like on the evenings news! I've never experienced anything like that in my life before.

Andy, you were right. It was invigorating and full of emotion. I think I've gotta knack of finding people with rhythm and a penchant for singing and humor. At Worth Street, I simply picked a random spot and before I knew it the people around me started singing and blowing whistles. I was glad. They made it fun.

Safely home after an exhausting and very worthwhile demonstration and march. It was great to see Jody, Alex and Peter. I really felt as if we were there as representatives for all.

When I spoke and asked for people to call out names of loved ones lost to HIV, it became much more powerful and emotional than I could have imagined it would be. It just built and built as if hearing names inspired others to call out more names. There was a sense that a deep well of loss, sadness and yes, anger too, that had been touched.

Many came up to me afterwards to hug me and thank me. It's in a moment like that when it's very clear to me that life is about service.

I could say I wish all of you could have been there, but honestly I felt as if you were.

And as is always so at these actions, there was also a lot of fun and high spirits. Like when the street in front of the Stock Exchange and at the bull in Bowling Green we redecorated with ACT UP dollars that said FUCK YOUR PROFITEERING. Well how could your heart not lift!

We'd originally used those kinds of dollars at the first Wall Street action in 1987. I had saved one and we ran them off again with the addition of a line about it being the 20th anniversary action.

When I first got downtown to Broadway and Worth I walked to the back of the line to see if I could spot anyone I knew on this breezy, sunny late March day in New York...I was soon handed a large, makeshift body bag to represent all those who had been so needlessly and tragically lost over the years.

We walked peacefully and chanted slogans going downtown past City Hall and on to Trinity Church...It was there that Alex and I spotted one another, and as serendipity would have it just moments before Andy spoke to the large crowd. We were about 30 feet away.

As Andy says the part where he asked for a moment of silence just after the crowd, including Andy himself, shouted the names of those lost, was very touching indeed...Andy also spoke of the greed of big pharma and insurance companies that conspire to keep the status quo regarding the broken health care system for so very many Americans and it was well - right on the money !!!

Someone picked up the body bag I carried to Wall St. and as we chanted our slogans in unison heaved it over the barricades...They were tossed back by those who kept the peace and all went smoothly but we got our point across, not just to those in power on Wall Street and City Hall but to thousands of passersbys going to and from their daily rituals in America's biggest town and even perhaps to the unionized and underpaid (particularly the younger) police officers.

So it was certainly worth the extended lunch I took and I felt good about participating and as Andy says all of Aidsmeds.com was there in spirit.

Be well friends...........................

Jody

Logged

"Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world". "Try to discover that you are the song that the morning brings."

Hey...thanks guys for sharing with us the events of the day. I can feel the energy, the emotion, and I wasn't even there. Thanks to all of you ( including Peter) for being there, along with the one thousand plus that showed up for this march !! This is when I wish we lived in the big city !! Power in numbers, I certainly hope a message got across, if not, lets make it 5,000 marchers the next time !! We all need to fight, and to get the message across, that we don't need the bull...we need "Healthcare for all" !!